Z1s arrived today.

farss wrote on 1/30/2005, 11:28 PM

Two units delivered today, I guess anyone who has one on order should be getting yours very shortly. Interesting rumour was that Sony's had these for a little while but were holding back shipment to give their own guys time to get familiar with the unit.
Bob.

Comments

PeterWright wrote on 1/31/2005, 12:27 AM

Believe it or not, Bob, but after reading your post I had to chase my local Sony supplier myself, even though he's known since last May I wanted one! I wish I could afford to forget a $12,000 sale.

Anyway, be interesting to compare costs, if you're free to - here in Perth it's AS7,900 (plus gst) for basic Z1, extra for batteries, charger, W/A lens, Polarised filters etc.

farss wrote on 1/31/2005, 2:51 AM

That's around the price we paid.
However unit does come with Sony Battery charger which is worth around $300.
WA Sony lens I think around $900.
Comes with largely useless battery and so far 3rd party batteries don't work on FX1 / Z1.
Unlike every other Sony pro camera this one doesn't come with a 'shotgun' mike, just the same built in/on stereo mic as FX1. Personally I can't see why you'd want to add a mic, if you fit a matte box the mic wouldn't fit anyway plus with the XLRs down low and out wide you'd need to use a R.A. XLR plug or you've got a lot of plug stuck out the side of the unit.
Oh, unit does come with one Pro Grade HDV Sony tape, don't have a price on this stock as yet but it sure looks pricey, this stock is a few notches up from the existing HDV tape, comes in the larger D5 shell blue case (DVCAM).
Personally I prefer the color of the FX1, but hey, that's just me, I kind of feel the Z1 looks 'cheaper' than the FX1.
One thing I'll ask is why the heck do camera manufacturers make cameras grey / black? Obviously they've never used a camera in Australia.
Bob.